Having the right resume is equivalent to having the right subject combination for a course in the university or having the necessary documents for visa application, it gets you noticed!
Unfortunately, more than half of today’s job seekers fall short of resume validation, they all have a piece of paper (or pieces of paper) listing the number of jobs they’ve held or the schools they attended. Creating a resume isn’t just listing the number of places you’ve worked or the number of certificates you’ve acquired, your resume is a reflection of you, your values, and generally what your priorities are.
Clustered or hastily-put resumes show employers you aren’t organized, in control or reliable. No employer wants a liability in his company, so don’t say your village people are after you when you get rejected at every job – you might be the architect of your own misfortune. It’s easy to overlook things when you’re worried about finding a job.
The best tips help you remember the smallest details of resume writing and this post will highlight six (6) simple ways to get you that dream job!
6 SIMPLE RESUME CHECKS
Create a professional email address
This looks pretty simple and of no importance but it’s not.
Having a professional email address will cause employers to take you seriously as opposed to having an unprofessional email address.
Yes
Ade.odunlade@gmail.com
No
Adesureboy@gmail.com
Asides getting you noticed, a professional email address will get you the job 30% of the time.
Update your contact information
Next, make sure the rest of your contact information is up to date. You don’t want to miss an interview because you put the wrong phone number on your resume.
Also, exclude information like your birth date or marital status. Employers cannot take these into consideration when hiring. If you’re applying for a job out of state or country, also consider omitting your current address. That way a hiring manager won’t think you’re confused about the location of the job.
Set your font size to 10-12 points
Keep your resume fonts between 10-12 points so that a hiring manager can easily read it without squinting. While choosing a font is important, making sure that it is the right size is important.
Align your content to the left to make it skimmable.
One major thing employers will do when they get a resume is to skim for relevant keywords from the job description, aligning your text to the left makes this easier for them to do.
Choose an attractive and readable font
The right font will do a lot for your resume.
Yes
Choose fonts that aren’t impossible to read, possibly ones like these:
- Verdana
- Arial
- Helvetica
No
If you choose a font that is hard to read or childish, an employer might toss your resume in the trash.
- Comic Sans
- Papyrus
- Curlz MT
Make sure you’ve created margins.
Margins are important. That’s because resumes with text crammed edge to edge look messy and unprofessional. You already know where messy and unprofessional resumes go.
If you do need a little more space, it’s okay to drop your bottom and top margins to 0.5” and your side margins to 0.75”. Any more and your resume will suffer plus you won’t get the job!
REMINDER: Check and cross-check your resume before you submit, never send a resume you aren’t completely sure of, it’ll just be a waste of paper!
Can you think of any more quick resume writing tips that we forgot? What are some little-known resume tips you can share? Let us know in the comments.